Audio 4:35
NT Govt tells PM to keep nose out of local alcohol policy

Sara EveringhamUpdated
Wed Feb 06 13:09:00 EST 2013

The Northern Territory Country Liberals Government says it has no intention of reintroducing the banned drinker register that the Prime Minister called for this morning. The Territory Government says the register was not stopping 'problem drunks' getting access to alcohol.

Transcript

ELEANOR HALL: The Northern Territory Country Liberals Government says it has no intention of reintroducing the banned drinker register that the Prime Minister called for this morning.

The Territory Government says the register was not stopping problem drunks getting access to alcohol.

ROBYN LAMBLEY: For Julia Gillard to start dictating from Canberra how we should implement alcohol policies and what they should be is an absolute nonsense. It's a follow on from the Nova Peris debacle.

SARA EVERINGHAM: The banned drinker register banned alcohol offenders from buying take away alcohol in the Northern Territory through an ID scan system.

Julia Gillard says the register was working and wants it reinstated immediately.

Robyn Lambley told ABC Local Radio in Darwin that won't happen.

ROBYN LAMBLEY: We've been appointed with a clear majority, five and a half months ago on the basis that we would scrap the BDR. We did that for one reason and one reason only - it wasn't working. And we do not intend to reinstate the banned drinker's register.

SARA EVERINGHAM: In her speech Julia Gillard said according to the former Labor Territory Government, after the first year of operation of the register, alcohol related assaults dropped in Northern Territory towns.

She says there were 10,000 fewer anti-social instances reported.

But Robyn Lambley has a different reading of the statistics.

ROBYN LAMBLEY: We dispute that there was any significant decrease, in fact, alcohol related assaults across the territory during the 12 month period it was introduced were 2 per cent higher than the year before.

SARA EVERINGHAM: The Deputy Chief Minister argues the register did not stop alcohol offenders from buying take away grog.

ROBYN LAMBLEY: We know anecdotally throughout the Territory that people were just getting other people to buy grog.

SARA EVERINGHAM: Dr John Boffa from the lobby group the Peoples Alcohol Action Coalition supports the Prime Minister's call.

JOHN BOFFA: I think there's a real chance that we will see some re-examination of this issue and perhaps we will see it come back.

SARA EVERINGHAM: Was there evidence that the ban drinker register was working? Because it wasn't formally evaluated, was it?

JOHN BOFFA: No, look, I think leading up to the withdrawal of the register there was some evidence pointing to it being effective. It wasn't clear. And you couldn't say that it was unequivocal. So there were some earlier signs it was being effective. I think though the sudden withdrawal of the register made it really clear to people all over the Northern Territory the impact it was having.

SARA EVERINGHAM: John Boffa thinks it's time for an evaluation of the register to settle the matter once and for all.

JOHN BOFFA: We need to look at the emergency department data, the hospital data, the police data. We need to look at what happens in towns. And if we put all that together we will find, I think, conclusive evidence to back up what's largely been anecdotal evidence up to this point that its sudden removal caused a big increase in terms of people being severely drunk.

SARA EVERINGHAM: The Prime Minister also called on the Queensland Government to exercise extreme caution in reviewing remote community alcohol restrictions.

The Liberal National Party Government has invited Aboriginal councils to apply for a relaxation of alcohol laws and must submit plans on reducing alcohol-related harm.

GLEN ELMES: Well someone told me there was a federal election just around the corner. So I would suggest to you that a play on gathering some votes in Sydney and Melbourne may have had a lot more to do with some of the statements she made today than it would be the welfare of Indigenous people throughout Queensland and the Northern Territory.

ANNIE GUEST: And what about the Prime Minister and other people's concerns that over the time there have been alcohol restrictions in Queensland there's been a lessening of violence and that relaxing the restrictions could see a return to higher levels of violence.

GLEN ELMES: Well there has been and the statistics show that in many of the communities there has been a lessening of violence and what we did last year was give to each mayor, each community, the submission that they needed, the ground rules for the submission that they needed to submit to us. The ground rules, as I talked about, in terms of you know, harm levels and attendance rates at school and so forth are kept in place.

SARA EVERINGHAM: Mr Elmes also says the alcohol restrictions of the past decade have often been undermined by sly grogging.

And Queensland Police told the state's Child Protection Inquiry last year that sly grogging ties up police resources that could be better deployed helping communities.